As for the characterizations, Packer goes for broke — with mixed results. Most of the actors are multiply cast, flitting among Greek and Trojan personas. The most impressive double turn is by Robert Walsh as a sleazy low-rent Pandarus sporting stubble and a cummerbund, and a stonily fierce Agamemnon in Second World War threads. On the other hand, Johnnie McQuarley, so compelling in Company One's The Brother/Sister Plays, has been directed to play "beef-witted" Ajax like something out of The Flintstones. (He is also a subdued Paris.) Craig Mathers proves a savvy Ulysses, and Bobbie Steinbach does a daring turn as a Priam seemingly beset by Parkinson's disease and dementia. Maurice Emmanuel Parent, though he shouts too much, is an ardent, disciplined Troilus. And Brooke Hardman is an unusually gutsy Cressida, as done in by sexual profiling as by her own nature.

Brustein takes another look at Will's world Call it the revenge of Tom Stoppard. Considered a great contemporary playwright by most theater writers, Stoppard has been something of a punching bag to Robert Brustein, one of America's most distinguished critics.

TRIST’s delightful twist on Twelfth Night From the earliest days of the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) in the 1970s, its founder and director Bob Colonna has been one of the state's keenest and cleverest interpreters of the Bard.

Colonial’s Macbeth in Wilcox Park The dolorous Dane provides endless fascination and those star-crossed lovers will never run out of fans, but for sheer density of dramatic emotional conflict nothing beats Macbeth , as the Colonial Theatre is demonstrating in Westerly's Wilcox Park through July 29.

Monmouth’s Henry IV is stunning Shakespeare's Henry IV is considered one of his "histories," as it enacts actual acts and battles of the British king who deposed Richard II.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company takes on Coriolanus The man of the hour is running for high office, and he has the support of the party faithful and the moneyed interests, but before he can claim victory, he must ingratiate himself with the unwashed masses, even as rival interests conspire to blacken his name and deprive him of all popular appeal.

ARTSEMERSON'S METAMORPHOSIS | February 28, 2013 Gisli Örn Garðarsson’s Gregor Samsa is the best-looking bug you will ever see — more likely to give you goosebumps than make your skin crawl.

CLEARING THE AIR WITH STRONG LUNGS AT NEW REP | February 27, 2013 Lungs may not take your breath away, but it's an intelligent juggernaut of a comedy about sex, trust, and just how many people ought to be allowed to blow carbon into Earth's moribund atmosphere.